In 2021, a full-scale reproduction of Michelangelo’s David embarked on an extraordinary journey to the ltalian Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai. The project brought together ultra-high-resolution 3D recording, scientific research, digital modelling, additive manufacturing, conservation and traditional craftsmanship, demonstrating how digital technologies have become essential tools for documenting, understanding and preserving cultural heritage.
Digital recording creates a high-resolution record that supports research, conservation and public access.
The physical reproduction is only one possible outcome of a much broader process of documentation, analysis and knowledge creation.
The Expo Dubai project became the starting point for CHEDAR – Cultural Heritage Digitalization and Resilience, a research and advanced training initiative dedicated to advancing the digital documentation of cultural heritage. Sestini’s photographs preserve the visual memory of that experience, recording the moment when the digital recording of Michelangelo’s David became not only an exhibition, but the foundation for new research, collaborations and future applications.
Massimo Sestini’s photographs take visitors behind the scenes of one of the most significant projects in the digital documentation of ltalian cultural heritage.
They reveal the expertise and collaboration that made it possible: geomaticians, conservators, engineers, artisans, together with the complex operations of transport and installation.
By bringing this usually invisible work into view, Sestini documents not simply the making of a replica, but the collective human and technological endeavour behind it.
The project attracted worldwide attention; at the centre of the ltalian Pavilion, visitors encountered Michelangelo’s David at eye level, meeting the sculpture’s gaze rather than looking up at it.
This subtle yet powerful shift transformed the experience of one of the world’s most celebrate masterpieces, demonstrating how innovation can renew the ways we interpret and engage with cultural heritage while prompting reflection on perception, authenticity and the relationship between original and replica.
Massimo Sestini(Prato, 1963) is one of ltaly’s leading photojournalists and an internationally acclaimed visual storyteller. Over more than four decades, his work has documented ltalian and global history through an extraordinary combination of investigative reporting, technological innovation and visual creativity. After his debut with the exhibition A Seventeen-Year-0ld and His Lens (Florence, 1980), Sestini quickly established himself through a series of exclusive scoops, ranging from politics and organized crime to major national tragedies. His photographs have appeared on the front pages of leading newspapers and magazines worldwide.
A pioneer of aerial photography, Sestini has developed a distinctive visual language that offers original perspectives on major events, including the Moby Prince disaster, the assassinations of judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, the Great Jubilee of 2000, the G8 Summit in Genoa, and the funeral of Pope John Paul Il. Alongside his news reporting, he has portrayed leading figures in politics, business, culture and entertainment, and since 2007 has collaborated extensively with ltalian public institutions and the armed forces.In 2014, while embedded aboad the ltalian Navy frigate Carlo Bergamini during Operation Mare Nostrum, Sestini photographed a crowded migrant boat from directly overhead. The image received the 2015 World Press Photo Award in the General News category and became one of the defining photographs of the European migration crisis, leading to the long-term project Where Are You, developed with National Geographic.
His aerial vision also inspired the exhibition ltaly: Horizons from Police Helicopters, inaugurated at the Quirinale Palace in 2016 and later presented internationally. Known for working in extreme environments – from military helicopters and naval operations to disaster zones and conflict areas – Sestini combines technical mastery with a distinctive visual language. His photographs reveal the relationship between people, landscape and history through unexpected perspectives. In 2018, a major selection of his aerial work was published in The Air of Time (Contrasto), offering a unique visual narrative of four decades of ltalian history seen from above.